Learning from relaxing on your diet at Christmas. A lovely lady had very bad cramping pain. Her doctor was sympathetic and all necessary investigations were done. She was delighted and very relieved when the pain went away on the Low Chemical diet. She reacted especially to amines The main culprits was eventually realized to be the turkey roll she had in her work lunch roll each day with salad. The problem is that because the nicely aged meat was taken out of the refrigerator and used so … [Read more...]
Have a no-fail Pavlova at Christmas
It makes sense to use Christmas to test out your tolerance in some way. Test what you really like as, if you are lucky and tolerate it, you will have a treat you really like even if you are careful about other foods. Or you can test one type of food chemical and see how much you can manage. For salicylates test some of the just beautiful fruit available. Mangoes and nectarines and watermelon are lower risk, then work up to other stone fruit and cherries, then Christmas cake and Christmas mince … [Read more...]
There is a downside to investigating your diet.
There is a downside to investigating your diet. Favourite foods have to be excluded, you have cravings when first on the diet, many other important people, even some your relations, and maybe even your doctor, may not be supportive. You just feel like going bust and eating lots of off-diet foods. Remember that liked foods do not usually cause your symptoms to happen quickly. There is a pleasant lag time, but then symptoms hit during the night or next day. And you have cravings and you wish it … [Read more...]
Tyramine sensitivity update
A comment from Kent has made me ask should tyramine sensitivity be a separate food sensitivity syndrome, as it is a group of symptoms. Kent writes “I have read a sampling of the comments on this page [in the Blogs] and I see quite a few people who state that they are sensitive to tyramine but that they do not get migraines. They then describe symptoms which are typical of migraines! I think most people have the misunderstanding that migraines = headaches. But migraines present a blanket of … [Read more...]
Salicylates. Flavours are also suspect chemicals
The careful analysis of the natural chemical salicylate, carried out by Dr Anne Swain for the RPAH diet, was groundbreaking research and was used as a guide in 1985. However, the amounts she found present did not correlate as expected with tolerance in patients. The reaction-causing chemicals may be salicylates or compounds somewhat similar to salicylate in their chemical structure. Even if we did know what the suspect compounds that cause reactions in food sensitive people are, they, and there … [Read more...]
Wheat: understanding its complexity
How do we make sense of wheat as an allergy, as causing coeliac disease, as affecting cooking softness, and as producing wind in some people? And there is a report saying that many people are eating more gluten-free products as they wrongly believe they are better for their general health and weight control. Let us think through all the issues involved. We have to consider the starch part of wheat which contains the fructans that can cause wind, and the protein part which is the gluten. Fructan … [Read more...]
Salicylate analysis in 2017 does it help?
Foods reported as high in salicylate but which are reported as not causing strong reactions in most diet responders included green beans, green peas, mild avocado, just-ripe bananas, unpeeled Packham pears, unpeeled pink lady apples, and persimmons. The 2017 salicylate data has not made understanding which foods you are more likely to tolerate easier. What is the problem here? Researchers good at doing careful biochemical analysis of chemical compounds are providing data on what they are … [Read more...]